In early prior art arragements, sponge rubber cushions have been glued to metal plates and then upholstered, as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,960,135, or mounted on a metal plate and covered by a flexible material or fabric, as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,601,677.
More recently, a mold has typically been injected with a suitable material to form a shell, after which foam is injected to fill the space between the shell and a metal back plate which is adapted to being attached to the door.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,566, a semirigid foam or cellular padding element 12 is mounted on a cardboard sheet supported on bent sheet metal lugs, and adapted to being covered by a prefabricated flexible body which, in turn, is adapted to being snap-connected at upper and lower edges thereof to a base plate mountable on the automotive door.